EICAR test virus is not a real virus. The file contains a legitimate DOS program that was written by the European Institute for Computer Anti-Virus Research. When run, it prints the message “EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!”. Test viruses are built for testing and observing the features and reactions of your anti-malware solution when a virus is found.

Download the test file to your computer. Unless your network security solution won’t stop the download of the test virus, your local anti-virus software should notify you when you try to save or execute the file. The EICAR test virus is the only standardized way to watch anti-virus-programs doing their job, and therefore probably all of them will detect and name the file. Nevertheless, this says nothing about detection rates and protective performance of the tested software. If the EICAR test file is not detected by your malware scanner, we recommend looking for the reason because it might be caused by malfunctions.

Android app „IKARUS TestVirus“

For testing your Android security solution, we offer a harmless test virus app on Google Play. Again, the test virus app does not contain any viral code and cannot cause any harm on your devices. It is a harmless test file that should be recognized by common Android virus scanner. It allows for safely watching how your security app reacts to malware on your smartphone or tablet.